Archive | December, 2013

The Red Cross is assisting three women and two children that had their home destroyed by fire yesterday morning on Fern Hill Road near Rainier. The fire was reported at a mobile home park outside of Rainier at about 7:45 yesterday morning. The women and the children were all able to escape safely, but the mobile home and its contents were a total loss, including all of the Christmas presents that they had exchanged the day before. The cause of the fire is not yet known, nor is there a dollar estimate on damage. The Red Cross is helping out with temporary shelter, clothing, food and other necessities. The names of the people involved haven’t yet been released.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is announcing that several portions of the state will close to cougar hunting at the end of the year, including a portion of southeastern Cowlitz County. Eight of the 49 cougar hunt areas in the state will close at dusk on the 31st of this month, including Game Management Unit 560. That unit covers the upper Lewis River area, also extending through Skamania County, going into Yakima and Kittitas County. Fish and Wildlife managers say that harvest guidelines have been met in that area, along with the 18 other GMU’s that are covered by this closure. Last year, 156 cougars were taken in Washington state, up from 145 in 2011, and 108 in 2010. Get full details on the WDFW website.

Saying that they want to give people every chance to allow donations before the end of the year, the PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center Foundation says that they will have staff available “until the stroke of midnight if needed” to accept end-of-year donations. Foundation President Cathy Barr says that past experience shows them that New Year’s Eve is one of their busiest days of the year, with people coming in right up to closing time to make their donations. Barr says that they want to make it as easy as possible, so she says that they will stay open as late as needed to handle those last-minute donors. If you would like to avoid the last-minute rush, call the Foundation at 414-7900 for information on how to make a donation.

It’s more than 30 years since the death of the man that took them, but a research project has turned up some never-before-seen pre-eruption photos of Mt. St. Helens, taken by Vancouver Columbian photographer Reid Blackburn. The Columbian reports that an undeveloped roll of film from Blackburn was discovered after a photo editor working on a geology book had asked for a specific image that they had seen in the paper. A photo assistant started going through some stored boxes, and came upon the old roll of film in other materials from Blackburn. A check of the paper’s records shows that the roll was probably shot some time between April 7th and 10th of 1980, as Blackburn rode over the mountain in a small plane. It’s speculated that he had at least two cameras with him, and probably didn’t like the shots he had taken on that roll. Because of the switch to digital imagery, the Columbian had to track down someone to process the black-and-white film, eventually sending it to shop in Portland, who gets that work done by a free-lancer. The images are said to be “astonishing,” given that they’re now more than 33 years old. Blackburn was one of the 57 people killed on May 18, 1980, when the mountain erupted.

LaMarcus Aldridge scored 32 points to lead the Trail Blazers to a 116-112 OT win over the L.A. Clippers. Portland has won seven of their last eight games but have a huge test tomorrow night at home against Miami, 6:05 pm on 101.5 FM The Wave…..The LCC women’s basketball team is hosting a tournament at the Centralia College gym. The LC Holiday Classic begins today including the Red Devils against Whatcom at 5 pm. The action runs through Sunday…..R.A. Long beat Knappa 74-42 at the Astoria boys tournament last night. The Jacks play the host team tonight…..In girls play tonight, Kelso takes on Battle Ground at 6 pm followed by Mark Morris against Heritage at 7:30 pm, both at the MM Gym…..The Fight Hunger Bowl, UW vs BYU, is tonight in San Francisco, KLOG 5:30 pm.

Jason Radcliffe, 43, of Kelso is getting some major props, after a song that he wrote some 15 years ago has been named as the winner of the 2013 Holiday Song Contest put on by the Radio Airplay Blog. Radcliffe’s “Christmas After All” was chosen out of about a thousand submissions to the contest; Radcliffe tells the Daily News that the rockabilly-themed tune is based on how his grandparents celebrate the holiday. He recorded the song about a year ago at a studio owned by Don Torgerson of Kelso, with Torgerson playing the instruments on the track. There’s not much that goes with winning the contest, other than 15 hundred “play credits,” and top placement on the Radio Airplay Blog “Independent Holiday ‘13” playlist. You can listen to “Christmas After All” by going to radioairplayblog.blogspot.com.

Friday:
The Stageworks Northwest production of “A Tuna Christmas,” wraps up this weekend at the Longview Theatre, on Commerce Avenue in downtown Longview. Curtain is 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, along with a 2 pm Sunday matinee.

The Portland Trail Blazers host the Los Angeles Clippers tonight, KLOG 6:35 pm. The Blazers have been off since Saturday, while the Clippers lost to the Warriors 105-103 last night…..Hawaii downed Oregon State 79-73 in the 5th place game at the Diamond Head Classic…..The LCC women’s basketball team will use the Centralia College Gym to host their Lower Columbia Holiday Classic starting Friday…..In boys high school basketball today, R.A. Long takes on Knappa in a 4 pm game at the Vince Dulcich Tournament in Astoria…..In girls action, Rainier plays North Marion in a 12 pm game at the Dulcich Tourney in Astoria…..The Washington Huskies have one more day of preparation for tomorrow’s Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco. The Dawgs take on BYU, KLOG pre-game 5:30 pm.

Be ready for the possibility of some extremely dense fog on area roadways this morning. The Weather Service says that fog is widespread through the Lower Columbia River region, also extending into Clark County, the Portland-Vancouver area, and down through the Willamette Valley. They also say that there could be some freezing fog in some spots, particularly in rural, outlying areas. Give yourself some extra time, increase your following distances and be sure to stay with your low beams.

About 1,100 Cowlitz PUD customers lost power yesterday at some point, with brief outages reported in Longview and Woodland. The first outage was reported around 11:20 am yesterday, affecting 553 customers on both sides of Lake Sacajawea. Power was out for about 90 minutes, and was eventually traced to a bird that had contacted two live wires at the same time. Around 2 pm, 460 customers in the Pekin Road, Whalen Road and Woodland Bottoms area got knocked off-line, an outage that was eventually blamed on a car crash, with a vehicle hitting a PUD, snapping a guy wire. 252 of those customers were back on within a half-hour, and then power was fully restored shortly before 3 pm.